Trump, Putin start bilateral meeting in Helsinki

Helsinki, July 16 (IANS) US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin started their first bilateral meeting here on Monday and they are expected to discuss a wide range of issues.

Speaking briefly to reporters, Putin said the two leaders had kept regular contacts by phone calls and meetings in various multilateral scenarios and it was time to have an in-depth discussion of bilateral ties and urgent international affairs.

There have been so many issues that attention was now necessary, Putin said.

For his part, Trump said he would raise issues related to “trade, to military, to missiles, to nuclear, to China”.

“I think we have great opportunities together as two countries that frankly, we have not been getting along very well for the last number of years,” Trump said.